SHADES OF AWFUL
As you may know by now, I read "Publishers' Weekly" and other book review sources, dutifully recommending books I think a small town library should have on its shelves.
My word is not gospel and those who run the library are well aware of my many prejudices and preferences. (See "What the Old Lady
Reads," "What the Old Lady Doesn't Read" elsewhere in these pages).
Although I skirted mentioning them one way or the other to the library, I confess I read the "Shades of Gray" S&M volumes, so I find the piece in the July 19, 2012 "London Review" by Andrew O'Hagan, especially delicious. Titled "Travelling Southwards," it looks back to earlier "bonkbusters," including novels by Jackie Collins, Sidney Shelden, Harold Robbins and Danielle Steel. Then O'Hagan moves along to Judith Krantz. "Each era gets the erotic writing it craves, or deserves," he says.
There certainly is bad writing throughout the Gray trilogy: "My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves." You can put up with this stuff maybe for the first one, but reading all three becomes annoying. Throughout, there are commercial tie-ins. Characters use only high end brands and every time they get cleaned up, they use body wash. O'Hagan says the books invite the reader "to be submissive, too, not to punishment, but to a 1980s-style dominance of money and power and products. "
That the "Shades" books are banned by certain public libraries because they are deemed "porn," is a mistake -- they should be banned because of awful writing. I'm sure she's aware of such criticism but never mind -- E. L. James is crying all the way to the bank.
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Friday, October 5, 2012
NEW BOOKS UNDER $75.
NEW BOOKS UNDER $75.
The August 20, 2012 "Publishers Weekly" introduces a crop of expensive books that make you wonder if the publishers need their heads examined.
There doesn't seem the slightest possibility that "A Journey Around Our America: A Memoir of Cycling, Immigration, and the Latinoization of the U.S." by Louis G. Mendoza (Univ. of Texas) $55. (234p) will make back a fraction of the investment by the press. The review is good so
that will help -- but the cost puts it beyond everyday reach.
In the same issue of PW, we find the review of a coffee-table art book ($60) about symbolist landscape painting. Art books are always expensive but how much they sell is something else. There may be a lot about Symbolism I don't understand. Also -- $50. for an illustrated volume about Georgia O'Keefe and her houses in New Mexico. OK. Another art book.
In the "Lifestyle" (ugh) section of the same PW, $50. for a patisserie
cookbook and $65. for the secrets of Asian cooking. Such expensive
volumes will put a dent in the book budget of even the most ambitious
and richly funded public library. I ask you: how many home cooks wanting to turn out a perfect croissant are going to get in the car, drive to the library, check out a big cookbook, lug it home and find some way to prop it up on the kitchen counter when all they need to do is Google.
There is one book for $19.95 reviewed in this PW that I'd get in a minute: "Living with Less: How to Downsize to 100 Personal Possessions" by Mary Lambert. CICO Books, (144p). September, 2012.
This is an antidote to those disgusting hoarder programs you see on TLC. Lambert assures us we can all make it through life with less stuff. She offers a couple of warm-up tests just in case you really are a hoarder in serious need of intervention. Then she says look around and pick 100 items you can do without. Kitchen and bathroom stuff doesn't count but underwear does. I not sure about the vacuum cleaner. I looked around our living room/dining room and before I even included the chair I was sitting in, I was up to 35.
I've always been a big thrower-outer. My closet is a little on the pathetic side and because we now live in a flat, there is no room to keep things we don't use. Still. There is no way I'd be able to winnow my relatively uncluttered life to 100 "things."
My inspiration (until Lambert came along) has always been the story (NYT?) of the LA woman who got dumped by her husband and then set about to rid herself of everything except: a couple of black trousers, several tops and jackets, two or three pairs of shoes and a BMW.
This kind of extreme divesting leaves Lambert in the dust.
The August 20, 2012 "Publishers Weekly" introduces a crop of expensive books that make you wonder if the publishers need their heads examined.
There doesn't seem the slightest possibility that "A Journey Around Our America: A Memoir of Cycling, Immigration, and the Latinoization of the U.S." by Louis G. Mendoza (Univ. of Texas) $55. (234p) will make back a fraction of the investment by the press. The review is good so
that will help -- but the cost puts it beyond everyday reach.
In the same issue of PW, we find the review of a coffee-table art book ($60) about symbolist landscape painting. Art books are always expensive but how much they sell is something else. There may be a lot about Symbolism I don't understand. Also -- $50. for an illustrated volume about Georgia O'Keefe and her houses in New Mexico. OK. Another art book.
In the "Lifestyle" (ugh) section of the same PW, $50. for a patisserie
cookbook and $65. for the secrets of Asian cooking. Such expensive
volumes will put a dent in the book budget of even the most ambitious
and richly funded public library. I ask you: how many home cooks wanting to turn out a perfect croissant are going to get in the car, drive to the library, check out a big cookbook, lug it home and find some way to prop it up on the kitchen counter when all they need to do is Google.
There is one book for $19.95 reviewed in this PW that I'd get in a minute: "Living with Less: How to Downsize to 100 Personal Possessions" by Mary Lambert. CICO Books, (144p). September, 2012.
This is an antidote to those disgusting hoarder programs you see on TLC. Lambert assures us we can all make it through life with less stuff. She offers a couple of warm-up tests just in case you really are a hoarder in serious need of intervention. Then she says look around and pick 100 items you can do without. Kitchen and bathroom stuff doesn't count but underwear does. I not sure about the vacuum cleaner. I looked around our living room/dining room and before I even included the chair I was sitting in, I was up to 35.
I've always been a big thrower-outer. My closet is a little on the pathetic side and because we now live in a flat, there is no room to keep things we don't use. Still. There is no way I'd be able to winnow my relatively uncluttered life to 100 "things."
My inspiration (until Lambert came along) has always been the story (NYT?) of the LA woman who got dumped by her husband and then set about to rid herself of everything except: a couple of black trousers, several tops and jackets, two or three pairs of shoes and a BMW.
This kind of extreme divesting leaves Lambert in the dust.
Friday, September 7, 2012
THE $22 CHICKEN
THE $22. CHICKENNot long after I found corn for a dollar an ear and tomatoes for $4.29 a pound, I came across a small organic chicken for $22. at a local farmers' market. When I questioned the price, the farmer explained how the chicken had been fed the purest grain, had ranged freely about the farmyard where it could indulge in assorted grubs and insects and had led a happy, comfortable chickeny life.
I thought of an episode of "Portlandia," the crazy out-there TV series
with Fred Armisen (SNL) and Carrie Brownstein. They're asking a waitress if the chicken on the menu is "local." Every question is answered with more information about the chicken, including its original address. Armisen and Brownstein hop in the car to go check it out. Everything gets loopier, yet you hear echoes of someone with annoying food requirements ordering a Starbucks grande.
We know food has got a lot more expensive lately and that seems to cut across the board: fruit, vegetables, meat, groceries, everything. Eating away from home has become a rare treat and if you go out, it had better be good. Understanding that a cheeseburger can cost close to $10. maybe the $22. chicken isn't such a bad deal. Think about it like this:
1. Roast the chicken. Deglaze the pan and make gravy. Carve and serve to 4 adults, 2 children. This uses maybe 2/3 of the bird.
2. Take the leftover meat off the bones and save it. Throw the bones in
a pot with leftover gravy and cover with water and chicken broth from a can. Simmer for about an hour then remove the bones and throw them away. Refrigerate the broth when it cools.
3. Make chicken salad or chicken a la king with leftover meat. For salad:
add celery, apple, walnuts, mayo, lemon juice. This will serve at least four
adults. For a la king: saute sliced mushrooms, celery, shallot and make a cream sauce in the pan before adding the chicken and maybe a little red pemiento. Serve it over toast or rice to at least four adults.
4. To make soup, remove the congealed fat layer from the chilled broth. Saute onion and celery, mushroom and carrot in canola oil or butter in a large pot. Add the broth and some fresh thyme or a little sage, pepper flakes and salt. Simmer with the top off until vegetables are tender. You can add tomato. Add leftover rice or pasta if you have it. Otherwise, serve to four adults with fresh baguette or croutons made with stale bread.
That's it. That's the end of the $22. chicken but look! It has fed a dozen people and all it took was willingness to actually prep and cook plus a commitment to not throwing away perfectly good food.
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